Smooth sailing in October for Gregor Blanco

Gregor Blanco stops to meet with his 4-year-old son Gregor, as the San Francisco Giants prepare to take on the Kansas City Royals in Game 5. (Michael Macor/The Chronicle)

One of the recurring themes of the 2014 season was that the Giants were doomed without Angel Pagan leading off the lineup. The statistics were there to back it up. Pagan played 96 games and the Giants were 57-39 with him, and 31-35 without him.

Even worse, according to legions of critics, was who was replacing him. When Bruce Bochy – after trying out Hunter Pence at the top – settled on Gregor Blanco, there was much despair and handwringing. The Giants could never win with Blanco in the leadoff spot.

But here in October, Blanco has become one of the heroes of the Giants lineup. Though hitting just .186, he has scored ten postseason runs, including six in the World Series. In his last six games, he’s hitting .304, with nine runs scored. In the pivotal Game 4, in which he manufactured the first run with a walk, a steal, and a score on a ground out, he scored three runs, the most by a Giant in the postseason since Pablo Sandoval’s output in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series which helped secure him the MVP.

Blanco played left field in the 2012 postseason (taking over that position during the season from the scorned Melky Cabrera). But this is a different level of responsibility.

“Oh, definitely it is,” Blanco said in a pre game press conference. “It’s different. In 2012 I was hitting 7th, and now I’m hitting leadoff. Being a leadoff, everybody is aware of that. All you guys and all the world is aware of, okay, let’s see what a leadoff hitter does.

“At first I was kind of putting pressure on myself a little bit in that series against the Nationals,” he added. “But then I said to myself, ‘You’ve been doing this your whole life. Since you were growing up, you were a leadoff hitter. And this is your dream and finally it’s come true.’ After that I just said, ‘Okay, just play your game and be the guy. Be the headache for the pitcher, for the defense.’ And since then I’ve been doing it. I’m really having fun, and it’s enjoyable, and why not? This is the World Series, so I should have fun.”

Blanco always seems to be having fun. No one has ever seen him in a bad mood. He always has a smile on his face, and is one of the most popular teammates in the clubhouse.

But it hasn’t always been easy for him. As he said he put pressure on himself. The leadoff spot seemed to change his game: in the regular season he hit .213 there but .333 when he was playing in other spots in the lineup.

“He’s shown some mental toughness, because he had a lot of pressure on him,” Bochy said. “In our leadoff spot, I was trying Blanco, Pence. And I really thought Blanco was our best answer, but he was having his struggles at the time. Now you’re getting some negative criticism, but he handled that well, and he kept working. He finally started settling down and finding ways to get on base for us, and that takes mental toughness. This kid has been through it. He helped us in 2012, and he’s done a great job.

“Now he’s a guy that’s one of our catalysts,” Bochy said. “He’s a guy that it seems like, when he goes, we really guy.”

Blanco has always been among the Giants best defensive players. He’s one of the premiere defensive center fielders in the game, and really burst onto the scene with the Giants when he made a memorable catch to preserve Matt Cain’s perfect game.

On Sunday he was asked about his defensive style of play.

“I’m really smooth,” he said, which caused the room to break out in laughter. “I always try to let everybody know that once the ball is in the air, I want to do the right thing to catch the ball, you know? And I do it with normal instead of just trying to put a flair on it. I’m just trying to do the right thing always in the game. …Yeah, I would say I do it smooth.”